Bjarni Gunnar
Bjarni Gunnar was a member of his home planet's Planetary Defence Force before turning to Khornate worship and seeking his death. Early Life Bjarni was born as an only child in the lowest poverty-stricken slums of a Hive World. From there, he learnt his talents of keeping focused on a goal above all else (staying alive, in his case). His family often moved around with all members old enough working for the criminal elements as a runner, which also gave him a physical fitness even in his extreme poverty and malnutrition up to several of his adult years. Eventually, his parents were caught in one of their jobs and arrested. Bjarni never saw them again, and in prison they died from the harsh circumstances within a year. That embittered Bjarni, filling him with hatred for the Imperium. Bjarni continued his job of running illegal goods until he volunteered into the world's PDF. Chaotic War Bjarni was a volunteer, neither better nor worse than the others. At the range, his inability to keep a cool head meant he was a poor shot, but he practiced melee combat until he was unparallelled within all except possibly the veterans. He also had contempt for authority, which prevented him from being promoted at all, and had him sent to dozens of disciplinary hearings. At that time, unrest had been growing within the planet, as a Chaos cult had been gaining momentum. The Arbites were having severe difficulty suppressing it, and it eventually broke out into a war. Many hundreds of millions of traitors fought against the few hundred thousand who stayed loyal, Bjarni among their number. Most believed to be a hopeless fight only fought by those too proud or loyal to beg before Chaos. Solemly swearing that no matter what happened Bjarni and the remaining loyal elements of the PDF would remain loyal even if it killed them, Bjarni continued to fight. Over three days alone, he racked up a kill count of 463, two thirds of them when he ran out of autogun ammunition - the remnants having a severe supply problem - and half of them with his bare hands when all his weapons finally broke. The war raged for years, but Chaos begun to dominate, the loyalists being forced to fight a guerrilla war rather than the straight fight it once was. For three months, the fight lasted, until allies arrived in the form of the Grey Knights. Hearing about this, Bjarni and his allies tried to move to their landing location, but they were attacked by a group of traitors jus a few hundred metres off their landing location. Bjarni chose to stay and try and hold them off, an act which would be the only reason he survived. Upon arriving at the location, Bjarni's friends and allies were gunned down by the Grey Knights, who were under orders to burn the whole planet to the ground, regardless of who was still on it. The sound of their deaths reached Bjarni. With nothing else to do, Bjarni killed the traitor in front of him with his own weapon and fled as fast as he could taking the traitor's weapon with him, outrunning the Grey Knights who were almost slowly burning everything. Casting aside his vows in a fit of anger to what he then presumed to be a corrupt government, Bjarni prayed to whatever force could listen that he could be given the strength to slay anything that stood before him. Unfortunately for him, Khorne was listening, and his prayer of pure rage and hatred briefly captured his attention. Khorne gave him a small gift of combat ability without Bjarni knowing. Feeling that everything abandoned him, Bjarni promised his loyalty to whatever would help him. Unfortuately, the weapon Bjarni took was a Bloodletter imprisoned in a weapon who served whoever overpowered its owner, and took its chance. The weapon revealed itself and promised him great power for his servitude. Out of desperate anger Bjarni's thoughts were clouded and twisted, so he agreed, declaring himself to be a servant of the weapon and its master. The Fight As Bjarni declared himself a servant of the weapon and Khorne, every electrical outlet went out as the weapon unleashed a surge of power. Exhulting at corrupting a once-loyalist, the weapon gave Bjarni his first reward; the swelling of his frame to the height of a Space Marine as the mark of Khorne burned upon his forhead and glowed like a live coal. Feeling a new power flowing through his veins, Bjarni took up his axe and tried to avenge his dead comrades. Outside, the Grey Knights had fought off many hundreds of thousands traitors and daemons alike, drawn like flies to honey, with the Brother-Captain left isolated. Bjarni took his chance, and hacking through all traitors in his path, he strode over to do battle with the Brother-Captain. Even with his new abilities and weapon, he was still outmatched by the Grey Knight, and he was stabbed through the chest. Realising that Bjarni failing here would lead to its destruction, the Daemon Weapon temporarily overpowered Bjarni's mind and drove him to a berserker frenzy. Under the control of the Daemon, Bjarni struck a weak part in the Grey Knight's armour, cutting off his right leg. Leaving Bjarni's mind and returning to voluntary imprisonment within the weapon, the Daemon channeled even greater strength into Bjarni, who tore the Grey Knight's head off with his bare hands, helmet and all. Laughing in his triumph, Bjarni held the head high into the air before collapsing from wounds. With the leader of the Grey Knights' operation slain and others faltering before the sheer numbers of traitors, Exterminatus began to follow, as a new Daemon World was considered a worse fate than destroying everything. One last gasp in the hands of the slowly bleeding-out Bjarni, the Daemon Weapon transported both of them back into the Warp, for better or worse. Recovery The power of the Warp flowed through the unprotected Bjarni, mutating and corrupting him, as well as healing his near-fatal injury. Before any major mutations were done, he was rescued by a captain of the Lost and the Damned, who recognised his favoured status and hoped to gain another fighter. Bjarni refused, cutting the traitor's throat and sacrificing him to Khorne. Finally ending his bloodthirsty rage, Bjarni realised he had become exactly what he once forught against. Bjarni realised he could try and turn the instruments of Chaos against itself, and continuing his loyalty to Chaos, he returned to realspace to hide on an Feral World, where his bloodthirsty tendencies could be ignored. There, he bought a large gravestone and carved the names of his fallen friends and allies. It was a token kindness out of his memories. He no longer felt any pity, nor could think of anything but the next fight for any great length of time. Chaos had done that to his mind, but he still retained enough sanity to occasionally have lucid moments where the thought of violence was gone and he acted most like his past self. Chaotic Incursion Within a week of his arrival, the Feral World had to deal with a Chaos incursion. Bjarni had spent the time purchasing combat stimulants, and he used them hacking a bloody path through every side of the combat in his own guerrilla war. Bjarni left no survivors, so it was several weeks before anybody heard of him. When the Chaos forces learnt of him, a Champion of Chaos tried to recruit him to their side. Bjarni, who had become ever more powerful by the gifts of Chaos, tore both the arms of the Champion and beat him to death with them. Claiming the title of Champion of Khorne for himself, he was given another gift; physical toughness comparable to that of a Daemon. It could be said that with every gift Bjarni grew ever more like a Chaos Space Marine. Bjarni realised that if the Imperium were to win, he would be found out and killed, but if Chaos were to win, he had a better chance of being able to continue his personal war of revenge against Chaos. To fight Chaos he must help Chaos, a paradox that annoyed him greatly. However, Bjarni's pride prevented him from allying with the traitors, so he fled. Striking from the shadows of cities in devastating charges, Bjarni's efforts sabotaged many of the defences of the Imperium and allowed Chaos to make enough ground to force their own victory. With the last loyal member of the Imperium slain, the world rapidly became a Daemon World before the Inquisition could arrive. For his efforts, Bjarni was rewarded with daemonic armour plates to keep him impervious to most conventional weaponry. Bjarni's latest gift had also nearly driven him mad with the urge to fight. From that day onwards, he constantly had to force back the urge for mayhem and murder, the urge to unleash his rage on anything in sight. In combat, he cannot control himself, and he started taking stimulants which, in addition to improving his abilities, slowly make it harder for him to resist his rage outside of combat. Barely able to control himself, Bjarni sought out the ruler of the Daemon World, a Chaos Lord of Slaanesh a stone's throw from Daemonhood, and cut him down in a frenzy of hacking and cutting. In reward for killing a favoured champion of Slaanesh, Bjarni recieved another gift; Daemonic wings. By now, he was only keeping together by force of will, having had enough mutations to make his physical form severely unstable, taking on many traits of Daemons. Retreating fully into the warp, he left and was not seen again for some years. Life Afterwards Bjarni didn't capture Khorne's attention for long enough to rapidly raise to the rank of Daemon Prince like many before him, and he realised he was glad. He was a paradox, a worshipper of Chaos that hated Chaos, a near-Daemon who slew as many of his kind as possible. Bjarni existed for combat now. Any attempt to turn back on the thrill of violence would lead to spawndom and his weapon betraying him. He could not allow that to happen. He would seek the most memorable and honourable death in combat possible. Taking up his Daemon Weapon, he chose to cleave a bloody path through everything before him until something could finally kill him. Equipment *Daemon Weapon :A Bloodletter is voluntarily imprisoned in this huge, double-headed greataxe. The Daemon is something of an enigma; it is perfectly happy to remain within the weapon, so long as Bjarni fights as often as possible. Gifts Bjarni is more Daemon than man now, gaining many advantages but also the dimensional instability and vulnerabilities of one. *Daemonic Armour *Daemonic Aura *Daemonic Stature *Daemonic Strength *Daemonic Flight *Daemonic Visage *Daemonic Resilience Personality Bjarni is constantly suppressing an urge to hack apart everything in sight. In combat, Bjarni unleashes it into a fit of berserker rage similar to that of the World Eaters, taking combat stimulants to improve his own abilities. Those lucky few who meet him in one of his lucid moments find him a soft-spoken individual who is rather polite. Every one of his words has a subtle emphasis on it that suggests he bears a great weight upon his shoulders. That time is the hardest for him as the weight of his guilt and the memories of everyone he killed in his bloody rage flow to the front of his mind. The closer to losing control and hacking everything apart he gets the louder he speaks and the more bloodlust fills every word and the more it echoes without reason. Another notable characteristic is that Bjarni only rarely kills defenceless people or noncombatants. This is done more because people who can't fight have little chance of killing him rather than anything else. That said, if Bjarni is is one of his worse furies he is particularly indiscriminate in those he slays, and people who fight and then surrender earn no mercy with him. Appearance Bjarni stands fifteen feet tall, with dark red skin. Adding to his imposing appearance are his eyes, which glow like coals and the Mark of Khorne permanently burning in his forehead. He wears great black plates of amour marked with the Mark of Khorne in dark red, with black leathery wings behind him. Quotes By About Category:Chaos Category:Characters Category:Khorne